ABC’s Castle kicks off Season 5 on Monday at 10/9c, and with that comes the answer to the question: So, how was it?
To recap: After chasing a hot lead in her mother’s long-unsolved murder and cheating death (again), Detective Kate Beckett resigned from the NYPD, licked some wounds, and then gravitated, rain-soaked, to the doorstep of her partner in crimesolving, novelist Rick Castle. And while it’s always a risky move to slip your Will They/Won’t They couple between the sheets, Stana Katic, who plays Beckett to Nathan Fillion‘s Castle, sees only a glorious afterglow to come.
During TVLine’s visit to the set — at which time she was wrapping up the romantically and dramatically satisfying premiere — Katic shared her in-depth assessment of “Caskett” past, present and future, as well as gave us a peek at her big-screen time-trip to the groovy 1970s.
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TVLINE | Talk about how [series creator] Andrew [Marlowe] first presented it to you that he was going to “pull the trigger” on Beckett and Castle and make that finally happen.
I was vocal about the fact that I felt that they needed to get together, because in my perspective there’s only so far that you can go with that kind of romantic tension. There’s a point where either it happens, or you risk being dishonest and pulling on audience’s heartstrings or whatever just for the sake of maintaining that audience, or because people fear that when there is no tension in that way that you lose interest. I don’t really believe that, so I felt like if we prolonged that, it would just be unplayable, unbearable. So I was told a couple of episodes before the finale, and I knew that they were going to try to sprinkle in notes to justify that happening at the end of the finale. I’ve been for it for a while, so I thought it was about time.
TVLINE | What excited you about it, and what, if anything, gave you pause?
What excited me about it was that it’s a shift in the relationship for those two characters. Last year there was a rift between them, partially because they were both holding secrets….
TVLINE | All season long, yeah.
Right, and also I feel unless romantic tension is given a voice, the alternative is often expressed – “I can’t be around you, I don’t want to see you,” things like that. So I thought, “Oh, this will be neat, this will be a new thing to play, for both characters.” [For example], there’s nobody that Rick has ever played love with — love in the bedroom, love outside of the bedroom. I’m sure we’ll be in the honeymoon period for a little while and get to know who these people are in a relationship that’s secret from everyone else.
TVLINE | What do you think their first time was like? Was it purely animal? Was it about yearning? Was it about Kate being with the one person she knows is her rock?
I feel like the first few beats were hurtful — meaning there was so much anger and tension and hurt that needed to be expressed, and in some ways it was expressed just by being together. And then I feel there was just really wonderful lovemaking and discovering each other’s bodies, and finding solace in each other. These are two people who are extraordinary
as individuals. I mean I hope, in my best version of a love story, they’re extraordinary as individuals. And then because they’re so extraordinary, they’re alone. By being together, maybe they’re not so alone? It’s kind of neat to have two people be vulnerable to each other who are not allowed to be vulnerable to very many other people, you know? And I’d like to see that progress throughout the year. I’d like to see what it means for Castle to care for a woman who is not his responsibility in the way that his daughter is or his mother is, but really care for an equal.
TVLINE | And, Lord knows, his romantic past is littered with women who were just…
Subordinates. So it will be nice to see that. And it will be nice to see Beckett also have somebody that she can trust and be safe with, because she’s always had to have her guard up, because there’s nobody else as capable as she is around her. This is a person that she can be safe around, which is extraordinary, because I think we’ll see more of who she is through that love story.
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TVLINE | You said there might be a bit of a honeymoon period, but in the immediate aftermath, how does their coupling affect Kate? Is she content, is she like, “Ah, what did we just do…?”
The immediate aftermath is she gave herself to him, and she was complete with him and hoped that it meant to him what it meant to her. So those first few moments are that wonderful generosity when you give yourself to somebody, but also that big question mark of…
TVLINE | “Was it appreciated?”
“Is it valued?” I think that’s an important beat in their relationship.
TVLINE | Is that question left in the air…?
[Smiles] No, it’s answered.
TVLINE | Will “the L-word” become an issue? Is that the next question Castle fans are going to be asking me 11 times a week? He has said that he loves her, but she’s never said it in return.
I wonder. I don’t know. I think there is definitely an emotion and a physicality that conveyed an emotion. I don’t know if it will become a part of the story that it needs to be said or heard.
TVLINE | Through the season premiere, only the two of them will know that they got together?
Yes. I think that they’re both not sure what they have. Whatever it is they’ve got, they’re really protective of it, and I don’t know that they want to necessarily spread [the news] until they figure out what it is. [CONTINUE TO NEXT PAGE]
